Matthew Engel Explained
Matthew Lewis Engel (born 11 June 1951)[1] is a British writer, journalist and editor.
Early life and education
Engel was born in Northampton, son of solicitor Max David Engel (1912-2005) and Betty Ruth (née Lesser).[2] [3] His grandfather had escaped anti-Semitic persecution in Poland.[4]
He was educated at Great Houghton Prep School, Carmel College, Oxfordshire, and Manchester University.[5]
Career
He began his career in 1972 as a staff journalist on The Guardian newspaper for nearly 25 years, reporting on a wide range of political and sporting events including a period as Washington correspondent beginning on 9/11. He later wrote columns in the Financial Times and now contributes to both these papers. Engel edited the 1993–2000 and 2004–2007 editions of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, with a short break when he worked in the US. He has been a strong critic of the International Cricket Council, international cricket's ruling body.
Engel was the Visiting Professor of Media at the University of Oxford for 2011.[6]
He was elected as a councillor for Herefordshire in October 2023 in a by-election for Golden Valley South ward.[7] [8]
Personal life
Engel lives on an old farm in Herefordshire. In 1990, he married former editorial director at Pan Books Hilary, daughter of Laurence Davies.[9] They had a son, Laurie, and adopted a daughter, Victoria (Vika), from Russia.[10] [11] Laurie died of cancer in 2005, aged 13, and Engel set up a successful charity fund in his memory, the Laurie Engel Fund, which has raised more than £1.2m in partnership with the Teenage Cancer Trust to build a new unit for patients in Birmingham (opened 2010) and for a cancer centre scheduled for 2018. The proceeds of a book he wrote, Extracts from the Red Notebooks (Macmillan), are donated to this fund. His book, That’s The Way It Crumbles: The American Conquest of the English Language (Profile Books) was published in June 2017.
Works
- The Reign - Life in Elizabeth's Britain: Part I: The Way It Was, 1952-79 (Atlantic Books, 2022)
- That’s The Way It Crumbles: The American Conquest of the English Language (Profile Books, 2017)
- Engel's England: thirty-nine counties, one capital and one man (Profile Books, 2014)
- Eleven Minutes Late: A Train Journey to the Soul of Britain (Macmillan, May 2009)
- Extracts from the Red Notebooks (Macmillan, 2007) and his Financial Times column about it
- The Bedside Years: The Best Writing from the Guardian 1951–2000 (Atlantic, 2001) ASIN B000Y11LQW
- Tickle The Public: One Hundred Years of the Popular Press (Orion, 1996), paperback (Phoenix, 1997)
- Thirty Obituaries from Wisden (editor) (Penguin Books Ltd, 1996)
- The History of Northamptonshire CCC (County Cricket History) (with Andrew Radd) (Christopher Helm Publishers Ltd, 1993)
- Sports writer's eye: an anthology (Queen Anne Press, 1989)
- The Guardian Book of Cricket (Pavilion Books, 1986) (Penguin Books, 1987)
- Ashes '85 Pelham Books, 1985)
- Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (editor) (John Wisden & Co Ltd)
- 2007, paperback, large print
- 2006, paperback
- 2005, paperback
- 2004, paperback, audio
- 2000/The Millennium Edition, paperback
- 1999, paperback
- 1998, paperback
- 1997, paperback
- 1996, paperback
- 1995, paperback
- 1994, paperback
- 1993, paperback
- The Sportspages Almanac: Complete Sporting Factbook (with Ian Morrison) (Simon & Schuster Ltd)
External links
Notes and References
- Book: Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Berry, Scyld. John Wisden & Co.. 146th. 407. Births and Deaths - Other Cricketing Notables. 2009. 978-1-905625-16-1.
- Debrett's People of Today, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2006, p. 507
- Web site: About us | Max Engel Solicitors.
- Web site: My daughter's Big Brother (Part 1). . 29 May 1999.
- Web site: Matthew Engel » Biography.
- http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/news-events/regular-events/visiting-professor-media Visiting Professor of Media
- Web site: Local Elections Archive Project — By-elections 2023-10-26 . 2023-11-01 . www.andrewteale.me.uk.
- Web site: 2023-10-28 . Herefordshire poll win for writer as railway station reopening tops issues . 2023-11-01 . Hereford Times . en.
- Debrett's People of Today, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2006, p. 507
- Web site: My daughter's Big Brother (Part 1). . 29 May 1999.
- Web site: The day the sky fell in. . 3 December 2005.